Sometimes Improvement Requires Inconvenience

10:47 am
Wendy van Eyck
2
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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you cross rivers, you will not drown. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flames hurt you. Isaiah 43:2 (NCV)

Photo: Creationswap.com | Design: Wendy van Eyck

I was driving home with a friend the other night and the conversation turned to all the road works that the government has been working for over a year.

The roads must be getting better in the long term but at the moment it feels like the roads are getting worse, much worse.

As we spoke I realised that what we really want most of the time is improvement without inconvenience.

I want things to advance, to grow and to change without my world being affected.

And I’m not only referring to road works.

I want to become more like Jesus without having to struggle with myself or issues or the reality of pain.

I often find myself thinking, “Just make it better, easily, please God” or "Can we get this over with quickly, Jesus."

Driving the other night I realized whether I like it or not, growth often means being inconvenienced.

God isn’t scared of shaking my life up in order to see me grow to look like more like him.

There are so many popular verses about how God will comfort and guide us; it’s easy to avoid the stories of people who were really inconvenienced in order to grow.

• Think of Moses running away from home

• Think of Jonah in a whale

• Think of Daniel in a lions den

• Think of Paul being blinded

Think of just about anyone who God used to dramatically affect the world and their life was inconvenienced.

These biblical stories aren’t just about being annoyed by having to take a detour to avoid road works; these are the kind of inconveniences that make you wonder if growing into the person God wants you to be is worth it.

When you’re inconvenienced and when life is hard, and you’re swimming against the current or when you’ve been burnt by someone you thought you could trust, or even been through a hard time physically, you can lean on the truth that God will be with you.

That one promise is worth all the inconvenience in the world.

Do you believe that God is with you no matter what? How do you deal with inconveniences in your life do you believe that God can use them to help you grow?

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A version of this devotional was originally published on www.gatewaynews.co.za

When Trusting God Is All You’ve Got

7:09 am
Wendy van Eyck
8
Comments

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. Psalm 25:1 (NIV)

“Do you want to do this?” my husband asks as we sit outside the sperm bank.

“No…do you?” I whisper.

“Not at all.” He says.

“Ssshall we go?” I stutter.

In reply, he turns the key, and drives out of the fertility clinic.

My husband and I drove all the way to deposit sperm after he was diagnosed with cancer, and then we couldn’t do it.

We’d talked about it, we’d prayed about it, we’d researched it and met with doctors about it.

We wanted to be wise about our fertility.

We didn’t want to play games with the future generations God might give us.

But in the end we couldn’t go through it.

We turned around and left, because we felt that God was telling us to not only trust him with our lives, but with our fertility.

I don’t know exactly what that means for us.

Dying To Live

11:16 am
Wendy van Eyck
0
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We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. Romans 6:9-10 (MSG)

In a strange way my husband is dying to live.

Once a fortnight for the last six months, my husband and I have pulled on courage like an old sweater and walked into the oncology unit. Once there, he’s received 6 bags of life-giving poison.

The chemotherapy is meant to kill the cancer cells. Sometimes it kills his good cells too though, which makes his hair fall out and causes painful mouth ulcers.

The chemotherapy is killing him. And at the same time giving him life.

We put up with small death at cellular level because without it he might not have the opportunity to live a big life.

Chemotherapy has been opening my eyes to the fact that death doesn’t have to be the end.

It is helping me realize that dying can lead to life, life and more life.

It doesn’t change the fact though that sometimes the cost of these small deaths seems too much to bear.

At times like that we have to remind ourselves that these small deaths have to happen so that he’ll be around for his 30th birthday (and hopefully his 40th, 60th and 80th).

We have to remember these small deaths are just part of a bigger story that we’re living, one in which life is beautiful as well as fragile, and how we live is more important then how we die; a life in which sometimes the only thing we have to hold onto is that the bible promises that death is not the end.

We need have no fear of death because in dying we find life.(<-- tweet this)

Do you believe that death is not the end? How would you live differently if you thought that in death you found life?

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I Am Not My Stuff

4:45 pm
Wendy van Eyck
0
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There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. Matthew 6:25-26 (MSG)

Each morning I stare at a closet full of clothes and then shut the door thinking, “I’ve got nothing to wear”.

In the store I wonder the aisles looking for more stuff to add to my cart, my home and my life.

I persuade myself I really need another book/chocolate/bedspread/pot plant/retirement policy.

Sometimes I disgust myself with all the things I think I need.

I especially find myself repulsive when I drive past the homeless man clutching one grimy blanket over his shoulder. The same homeless man I’ve driven past for the last five years and given nothing too. Really, can I not even spare one pair of shoes for his swollen, wounded feet?

Sometimes I think, I should just give it all away, throw out all the cookbooks and scatter cushions and pot plants, and live out that I really believe we only need Jesus to survive.

Then I think of the homeless man and I get scared that I will end up like that.

And when I get scared, I stop trusting God.

I stop believing that the God who clothes the lilies would also clothe me. I stop trusting that if he clothed me, like the lilies, he wouldn’t put me in rags.

And then I read Matthew 6 again, and I think about how maybe God doesn’t want me to give it all away, maybe he just wants me not to care so much about all this stuff.

Possibly, he wants me to remember that I am not my stuff; I am His.

And I'm worth more to God then all the stuff I own. (<-- click here to tweet this)

Perhaps he just wants me to be careless in the care of God, whether I have lots of stuff or no stuff, to simply be content to be his and to be looked after by him.

We think we need so much stuff. But really all we need is to be content in the care of the only living, breathing God. And in realizing that, we’ll find freedom to live with or without our stuff.

How do you think it would feel to trust God to take care of you?

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Together we have visited a fertility specialist, sat in the parking lot of a sperm bank, and decided to trust God with any future generations.

My husband has had a bone marrow biopsy.

My husband has had two operations.

He has fought through eleven chemotherapy sessions.

There have been infections and sleepless nights and at times pain has kept him in bed all day.

And then, there has been this overwhelming, undergirding, engulfing feeling of being held. Of being safe in the arms of the one who created us, who breathed life into us, who knew us before we were born, before cancer, before all of this.

What Does Jesus Think?

8:06 pm
Wendy van Eyck
0
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If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5 (NIV)

There’s a guy in my office that works with a man called Jesus.

Through out the day you’ll hear him say on the phone, “I’ll speak to Jesus about it and then get back to you” or “I’ll let you know what Jesus thinks!”

I’ve heard it countless times but each time I think, I love that he cares so much, what Jesus thinks.

And it makes me wonder if maybe this is what James meant when he said to ask God if any of us lack wisdom.

To be clear I don’t think James wanted us to stop and make a big thing about asking Jesus for wisdom.

I suspect James just wanted it be a natural part of who we are. Perhaps a bit like breathing: simple, unconscious and something we can’t live without. Maybe a little like my colleague who without thinking checks with Jesus.

Every time I hear, “When Jesus tells me what he thinks I’ll let you know”, I’m challenged because I’d like to have that kind of relationship with Jesus, (the Jesus who died and rose again for us, not the Jesus who works with the guy in the office).

I’d love it to be that easy and acceptable to just tell someone, “I’ll let you know what Jesus thinks…” and for them not to raise their eyebrows or think, “religious freak”. And I wish that I was that in tune with Jesus that before I did anything I thought, “let me check with Jesus”.

And I wonder what stops us from checking in with Jesus throughout the day.

For me, it is often embarrassment, or fear of what others might think, but what is it for you?

How can you make seeking God’s wisdom a more normal part of your life?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this devotional via a comment below or if you enjoyed this post why not tweet it or subscribe to have each new devotional emailed to you.

I originally wrote this devotional for www.gatewaynews.com

God is Holy, Holy, Holy

4:51 am
Wendy van Eyck
1
Comments

And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3 (NIV)

Photo: Creationswap.com | Design: Wendy van Eyck

I started out in the TV industry as a scriptwriter.

In many ways writing scripts is still the thing I love most.

These days I manage a team of producers, scriptwriters and directors and together we make programs that keep a 24/7 channel going. However, given the chance I’d still choose to write scripts all day.

Recently I had the opportunity to do just that for a 13 episode tv show which explores how gospel music lyrics can help us see God better. This kind of thing is right up my alley.

One of the songs was all about the holiness of God. I started doing some research reading and came across this quote by R. C. Sproul:

“The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.”

I read this and thought how beautiful and true it is.

And how rarely we remember that God is sacred, divine, pure and wholly worthy of our worship.

How often we forget that God is holy, holy, holy.

How does viewing God as holy, holy, holy change the way you worship him today?

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What Is God Trying To Show Me?

11:51 am
Wendy van Eyck
5
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His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3 (NIV)

Photo: creationswap.com | Design: Wendy van Eyck

I remember hearing a story once about a man who stopped and asked an old couple for directions.

A young man and his wife pulled over and explained they had just moved to town. And asked the old couple if they knew where they could find the post office.

The old man replied, “I certainly do. I was born in this town, raised 4 fine children here in this city. I plan to die in this town too. Now where was it you wanted to go young man?”

“Er, the post office”. The young man knew his wife’s idea to ask for directions had been flawed. Why did she have to ask this couple who were likely to take so long to recall the directions, the post office would be closed or rebuilt somewhere else, by the time they were finished.

When Roses Look Like Kindness

5:19 am
Wendy van Eyck
2
Comments

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)

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Meet Me

I'm learning to love well, run well and read well. I’m married to Xylon - a man who talks non-stop about cycling - and makes me laugh. I write for anyone who has ever held a loved one’s hand through illness, or believed in God despite hard circumstances or ever left on a spontaneous 2-week holiday through a foreign land with just a backpack.